The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-06-15
AT A JUSTICES BAR.
Cases Disposed Of at tbs Astonishing Rat, Of
Sixty to the Hour.
a Glimpse Of New York Police Court Methods
and the Tombs Interior.
A Beautiful and Modest Clarity Conducted by
the Porter Lodge Society.
Providence, Il. l., Manufactured Joke
ON ssGoedyear''-A Man Who Had Cor
responded With the Yassar Girls.

New YORK, June 1.-The Little Judge"
Patrick G. Duffy, is Justice of the Peace,
and of the police and coram, and, for
that matter, sd valorem, too. I know Of
no other of the eight Police Justices we
have in this city who weighs justice with
better or quicker comprehension of its
value than the Little Judge" His rate of
dispensing justice Is about sixty cases to
the hour, or about one minute. Justice
is not leaden-heeled with him, nor halt, nor
blind. / think occasionally he looks with
only half an eye at some of the cases of
fraii and erTing and beSotted humanity
which daily passes in review before him,
but it is because the rest of his two optics
had long since been opened by experience
with former professions of ''drunks and dis
orderlies" / haven't the slightest doubt
that many persons brought before our Po-
lice Justices are affected By the judicial
recollection of other similar incorngibles
previously punished; but, as a rule, am
satisfied, by personal obser Vation, that
ninety-nine out of every 100 persons who
are brought before Duffy get their deserts,
and the Tooth escapes with less whipping
than he deserves. 1t is a brief and SUM-
mary method the Little Judge and his
colleagues have OF trying &C complaints which
involve the liberties and affect the pocket
books of the accused citizsns and citizen
esses, but l don't see that much injustice
follows. Judge Duffy and other of his
colleagues have been recently accused OF
dispensing with justice, by their hasty and
arbitrary methods OF administering it,
but, during a two hours sitting in the
Tombs recently, / saw no person refused a
hearing, and saw injustice done nobody
who had any plausible tale to tell.
Not so with lady who sat with the
Judge and took notes of MS decision. II
appeared subsequently that this lady had
called at the Tombs to see Mrs. CHAR
Clgnarale, who is condemned for the MUIR
der of her husband. with the idea of APP
pealiDg to Governor Hill for a commute
fion of her sentence. She had to wait, and
the Judge made her an associate Justice for
the time. One poor fellow she induced the
Judge to send back to work on the aque
duct as worse punishment than lying idle
in prison, and the man was so gratided at
the interference of the lady that he volun-
farily took the pledge for a year. But she
found fault with two decisions of the
Judge. A hard working woman with
several bright looking children, neatly
dressed, swore out a commitment for
her drunken husband, whom she had
and sottishness, and the Judge gave
him six months on the island Cant you
give her divorced" asked the lady Of the
Judge. when / am on the Supreme Court
bench" replied Duffy. The other case was
for assault and battery. A twelve-year-o
girl, accompanied by her mother, swore
that German saloon keeper, to whom she
had been sent by her mother for quart of
beer, had struck her in the eye. The eye
was black, but several Witnesses swore that
: she struck 1t against q swinging door as she
ran out of the room. The Judge dismissed
the complaint, much to the disgust of the
mother. The Judges far associate in
quired, with much indignation: Cant
you commit the mother for sending such
child for beer?' The Judge said he coul d
not Just then the irate mother returned
TO the Judge and charged the saloon keeper
with selling beer to minor And the
law compels me to hold this man in $500
bail 10 answer to that offense in a higher
court, ," was Judge Duffy's comment.
1t is very doubtful in my mind whether
or not il is any punishment at all TO send
the average prisoner brought before the
Police Justices 10 the Tombs prison for
brief periods such as most OF them are
committed for. The prison is a superior
home in every respect to these Of most OF
the persons brought there from tenement
houses or worse. It is cleaner aud cooler;
the sanded floors OF the prison are literally
clean enough to eat off; the shade OF those
high prison walls is IS deep as that of
pTimeval forest and even the cells are COM
psraIively cold. There isn't any good reason
why the prison should not De clean, be-
cause every prisoner there is a servant
whose duty 1t Is to make the
least dirt and to do the most
thorough cleaning of the place. The
food with which the prisoners are fed
is superior in quality aud greater in
quantity than they are accustomed to with
out its walls 1t is only the reflection that
IL is not eaten st liberty that mars the
of the fTonoha haa q hor fantx
when you write il; il sounds harsh and
cruel as you say it--"Iu the Tombsn but
beyond The feeling of regret that anybody
should have committed crime which brings
them there, there isn't the slightest reason
10 sympsthize with those who are prison
oners lin the Tombs." Warden Walsh
went into Office with hue and cry OF the
press sgainsE his appointment. l believe
the Star was the only daily paper which
said good word for him, It may be that
these attacks stirred Walsh up TO the
resolution TO make the prison a model
one; at any rate, in point
cipline be has made the Tombs tar su-
perior as prison to what it ever was be-
fore 1 have never seen it in such perfect
condition as far as affects the safety, health
and conduct OF lis inmates, whether pris-
oDer attaches In the southeast corner
Walsh has as gorgeously appointed fl At as
Ndu pt lOuuI III lDo City, anu III tuc UpSu
space between the Magdalen prison a nd the
southern wall Mrs. Walsh has constructed
little oasis OF garden with creeping
plants and playing fountains that make
the whole court yard redolent with nat
ural perfumes and beautiful with every
color of nature. Living in the Tombs isn't
such an unpleasant life after all, and
never again mean to sympathizs with any
body who goes there after this.
Some of The unheard of charities OF thi:
noble city are among its most beautiful.
heard of one the other day which am vic
lating confidence in telling about, but
think the world will be all the better fol-
knowing about its pure unsel6shness, and
think my Informant was selfish in insisting
I should not name the charming donors Of
this rich bat modist charity. Miss Porter
= sister of Noah Porter, of Yale has beer
conducting school at Pennington, Conn.
for over fifty years. IL is one Of the famous
private academies for young ladies which
is never heard of in print; one that it looks
like sacrilege to advertise. The daughter
of prominent people all over the country
have been educated at Miss Porter
school-dau ghters of Presidents and would
be Presidents, children of dignitatrie:
of every State and OF million
aires from every section; and thoss
of them surviving shortly before the CLOS
of the senli-centenary of Miss Porter